O Ye Of Little Faith

To those who worked with him, the most surprising thing about the news that John J. DiIulio Jr. would be the first senior official to leave the Bush White House was that it didn't come sooner. From the moment in January when the professor and registered Democrat was tapped to oversee Bush's faith-based-charities initiative, DiIulio struggled in the job. As the program faltered in Congress, the outspoken, proudly impolitic DiIulio clashed with lawmakers, alienated religious conservatives and feuded with White House colleagues. A month ago, he sent a memo to the President's top three aides laying out his plan to leave by early fall. Lately he has been coming to work so infrequently from his home in Philadelphia that his unpaid assistant took over his office. Last week, when he announced his intention to resign, DiIulio cited personal and health reasons. He has heart trouble, but was also frustrated with the good-soldier corporate culture of the Bush White House, and bitter about the suspicion and partisanship--on both sides--that had all but crippled his program. "The job is literally killing him," a sympathetic White House official said last week. "He has to go."

DiIulio's departure would be less significant if the only other Democrat with a high-ranking White House job weren't following him out the door. Not only is Sandy Kress a Democrat, but he's also the lead negotiator and chief policymaker for Bush's education-reform plan. Together with his faith-based initiative, education reform undergirded Bush's claim to be a compassionate conservative. Like DiIulio, Kress was chosen because Bush hoped his Democratic credentials would attract bipartisan support. In Kress's case, it worked. But after the education-reform bill clears Congress, expected next month, Kress will pack his bags.

What does it say about Bush that both Democrats in charge of top presidential priorities are quitting? "I think it's just a coincidence," insists White House spokesman Dan Bartlett. It's true that both men let it be known in January that they would only stick around for six months or so. Kress hasn't drawn a government salary, let alone hung pictures on his office walls. But others inside the Administration and on Capitol Hill argue that their departures will cause the balance of power within the White House to shift to the right. "The only two moderates in the place are leaving," says a liberal House Democratic leadership aide who has worked with both men this year. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means."

On the other hand, some Republicans could barely contain their glee about Kress' imminent departure.